3 journalers for this copy...

Picked this up (unregistered) from the Boston BookCrossing meetup on May 13.

Amazon: Medical student Christine Montross felt nervous standing outside the anatomy lab on her first day of class. Entering a room with stainless-steel tables topped by corpses in body bags was initially unnerving. But once Montross met her cadaver, she found herself intrigued by the person the woman once was and fascinated by the strange, unsettling beauty of the human form. They called her Eve. The story of Montross and Eve is a tender and surprising examination of the mysteries of the human body, and a remarkable look at our relationship with both the living and the dead.

Fascinating account of a first-year medical student (Christine Montross) and her experiences in gross Anatomy lab. It is really about relationships - especially between Montross and her cadaver,"Eve", but also among the four students in the dissection group, and ultimately Montross's relationship with her domestic partner, Deborah. Along the way, we learn about the human body and its secrets.

I never gave much thought to the understandably strong emotions that are tied to the process of dissection. Students are given very little information about who their cadaver was when alive: what s/he did, felt, stood for. It's an enforced close relationship with someone the student doesn't know at all. That alone is strange, to say nothing of the unpleasant physical nature of the exercise.